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Dear Friends of Greentown,

2024 was an incredible year for our startups! Greentown proudly welcomed more than 80 new climatetech companies to our incubators and accelerator programs this year, all of which are reinventing how our world operates—from how we power our homes, to how we manufacture our goods, to how we shape the built environment.

Each year, we celebrate some of our startups’ most impressive accomplishments as they develop, deploy, and commercialize their climatetech solutions. Here’s just a sampling:

Fervo Energy, which is working to deliver next-generation, carbon-free geothermal energy, raised $244M—including from Greentown partner Mitsubishi Heavy Industries; had a pilot selected as one of three projects to receive up to $60M in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE); announced 320MW of power purchase agreements with utility Southern California Edison; and achieved record-breaking commercial flow rates at its Cape Station project—making it the most productive enhanced geothermal system in history.
Ebb Carbon signed a marine-CO2-removal deal with Microsoft that commissions the removal of 350,000 tonnes of CO2 over 10 years.
American Battery Technology Company completed construction of its battery-grade lithium-hydroxide pilot plant in Nevada and began commissioning. It also received one $150M grant and another $144M grant contract from the DOE to build its second commercial-scale lithium-ion-battery recycling facility, which will process about 100,000 metric tons of battery materials annually.
Dandelion Energy raised a $40M Series C led by Google Ventures that will support the home geothermal company’s nationwide expansion of what it says is the world’s most efficient geothermal heat pump, which it developed and tested in Greentown’s prototyping lab.
Phytoform Labs unveiled a new tomato variety optimized for vertical farms that’s one-sixth the size of a traditional tomato plant and yields five times the amount of produce. It also announced its CRE.AI.TIVE AI platform, which can "rapidly evolve sequences of plant DNA to activate traits such as drought and pest resistance."

And in many ways, 2024 was the year of Sublime Systems. This member—whose electrochemical process for low-carbon cement enables a 90 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions—had a banner year of growth. It deployed its cement in its first commercial construction project, Boston’s largest net-zero-carbon office building that’s leased by Greentown partner Amazon; announced a sale of 2,000 tons of cement to Vineyard Offshore, the parent company of Greentown partner Vineyard Wind; signed an MOU with Microsoft; and brought in new investments from the DOE and Greentown partner Holcim.

Curious how a novel, hardware-oriented technology like Sublime Systems’s gets ready for this level of commercial deployment? Take a look at the startup’s immense growth over the past four years and how it went from its first gram of cement to a 250-ton-per-year pilot plant, from two founders to a team of more than 85, and from $0 raised to over $200M.

2024 was also a major year for our accelerator programs: Greentown Go, ACCEL, and the Carbon to Value Initiative (C2V Initiative). Go Make 2023 with Shell and Go Build 2023 with Saint-Gobain wrapped up this spring, featuring pilot studies, integration testing, market exploration, and more between the corporate partners and startup cohorts. Meanwhile, the second year of ACCEL—an accelerator for BIPOC-led startups from Greentown and Browning the Green Space—supported seven startups by offering access to funding, networking connections, resources, and opportunities that structural inequities put out of reach, and the C2V Initiative—a unique partnership among the Urban Future Lab at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Greentown, and Fraunhofer USA to catalyze the carbontech ecosystem—concluded its third year and announced a new startup cohort for Year 4.

We’re currently accepting applications for two accelerators: Go Make 2025 with Evonik and Year 3 of ACCEL. Interested startups can learn more about these programs here and here—be sure to apply by the January deadlines!

In Houston, we continued our efforts to bolster the region’s burgeoning energy-transition ecosystem with three initiatives: the Houston Ion District Investor Activation Program, the Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week, and the Texas Exchange for Energy and Climate Entrepreneurship (TEX-E). These programs made significant strides to channel a pool of capital toward climatetech startups, build connections to advance climate solutions, and create a student-driven entrepreneurship ecosystem. Learn more in our recent Greentown Houston newsletter!

A major highlight of the year for our team was Greentown’s fifth annual Climatetech Summit, which brought together more than 1,800 climate champions and featured speaking programs with top climate leaders and startup showcases in our prototyping labs. Check out recaps of Houston’s summit here and Boston’s here, complete with session recordings, photos, and details on the startups that pitched!

As we look ahead to 2025, we know that the climatetech industry faces various headwinds. But we remain wholeheartedly optimistic, because we know that all of you—from our 200+ members, to 80+ corporate partners, to fantastic investor network, and beyond—are a powerful engine for climate action.

If you’d like to support Greentown’s work with a year-end donation, you can do so here. We also welcome you to explore how you can get further involved in our community in 2025, and we hope to see you at an event in the new year!

Warmly,
The Greentown Team

Recent Reads

Twelve climatetech startups joined our community in Q4 2024, working on technologies ranging from osmotic power, to membrane-based dehumidifiers, to CO2-based sustainable polymers. Let us introduce you!

Atacama Biomaterials is developing a game-changing alternative to plastic packaging. The startup creates regenerative plastics from local biomass that are paper-recyclable or compostable, and made via a low-heat manufacturing process that’s carbon-free when powered with renewable electricity. Learn how the startup is using AI and robotics to make this sustainable tech highly scalable.

Since the launch of its Boston Innovation Hub at Greentown in 2019, Enel has been a deeply committed Terawatt Partner, finding many creative ways to collaborate with our members and support their journeys to market. From partnering on multiple programs and scouting challenges to hosting pitch days and mentoring startups, Enel has engaged with our community in a myriad of formats—and as a result, formed partnerships with multiple Greentown startups. Read more in this piece from Enel!

Mark Your Calendar for These Upcoming Events

Jan. 30: Canary Live Houston [Greentown Houston]
Canary Media is bringing its live event series to Greentown Houston! Come to Canary Live Houston for an exploration of Texas’s clean-hydrogen economy and how the state became the United States’s largest clean-energy market.

Feb. 6: EnergyBar: Kicking off 2025 [Greentown Boston]
Join us for our first EnergyBar of the year to network with entrepreneurs, investors, students, and other climatetech champions.

Feb. 27: Climatetech Intern Fair [Greentown Boston]
Calling all students and soon-to-be graduates! Please join our annual Intern Fair, which focuses on connecting prospective interns directly with Greentown’s cutting-edge climatetech startups.

Thank You to Our Partners

External Newsletter — December 2024

From The Ecosystem

External Newsletter — December 2024